210 SEO Recommendations Affecting Google Ranking_Google Search Ranking Optimization
📅November 22, 2019
👤Lee
⏱️Reading Time: 2 minutes
🔄Last updated: January 17, 2020
📚 Table of Contents
As the world's largest search engine, all website owners hope to achieve better rankings on Google's search results pages. How can a website get more traffic from Google? Naibabiji shares here210 SEO recommendations that influence Google rankings.
Domain Factors
As a website's address, the domain name is very important for a website, regardless of mobile-friendliness. From a domain factor perspective, the following 10 points affect Google ranking.1. Website Domain Age: Looks beautiful onThis videoIn it, Google„s Matt Cutts confirms: “The difference between a six-month-old domain and a one-year-old domain is really not that big at all.„ In other words, they do use domain age as a ranking factor... but it“s not a major one.2. Keyword in Top-Level Domain:This no longer creates a significant competitive advantage as it once did. However, including keywords in your domain name can still serve as a relevance signal.3. Keyword as First Word in Domain:Domains starting with the target keyword have a competitive advantage in Google rankings compared to domains where the keyword is not found (or appears in the middle or end of the domain). For example, ifNaibabijiA domain containing keywords related to website building is beneficial.4. Domain Registration Length:A Google patent states: „...legitimate domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of the domain.“5. Keyword in Subdomain:Moz's expert panel believes the presence of a keyword in a subdomain can boost rankings.6. Domain History Data:Domains with ownership changes or multiple lapses may signal Google to reset the link equity pointing to the domain, effectively „resetting“ the site„s history. Or, in some cases, a penalized domain might transfer that penalty to a new owner.7. Exact Match Domain:Exact Match Domains may still give you some competitive advantage. However, if your EMD is a low-quality site, it is more susceptible to the EMD update.8. Public vs. Private WhoIsDomain privacy protection can be a signal of „something to hide.“ To quote Googler Matt Cutts: „...when we checked the whois on them, they all had “whois privacy protection service„. That“s relatively unusual. ...Using whois privacy isn„t necessarily bad, but once you start throwing up many different kinds of signals, you“re often talking about a webmaster that is qualitatively different than a webmaster that has just a single site.„9. Penalized WhoIs Owner:If Google identifies someone as a spammer, it makes sense for them to scrutinize other sites owned by that person.10. Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) Extension:Having a country code top-level domain (.cn, .pt, .ca) can help the site rank for that specific country... but it can limit the site's ability to rank globally.
Page-Level Factors
11. Keyword in Title Tag:While not as critical as it once was, your title tag remains an important on-page SEO signal.12. Title Starts with Keyword:According to SEOmoz, titles starting with keywords often rank better than those with keywords in the middle or end.13. Keyword in Description Tag:Google does not use the meta description tag as a direct ranking factor. However, your description tag influences click-through rate, which is a ranking factor. For example, this site„s description “Naibabiji records my ownSteps to Build a Website, individuals and businessesWordPress Installation Tutorial; sharing theme templates, plugin code, resource downloads, VPS hosting deals, usage tutorials, web optimization techniques.14. Keywords Appearing in H1 Tags:The H1 tag is the „second title tag.“ According to a relevance study, Google uses your H1 tag along with your title tag as a relevance factor for webpage rankings.15. TF-IDF:How frequently does a word appear in the document? The more times a keyword appears on a page, the more likely the page is related to that keyword. Google may use a sophisticated version of TF-IDF.16. Content Length:Generally, search engines may consider longer articles to be more detailed, while shorter articles might be perceived as lacking substance.17. Table of Contents:Adding a table of contents to article pages helps Google better understand your page's content and may result in sitelinks appearing in Google search results. For example, Naibabiji's articles include a table of contents feature.18. Keyword Density:Although not as important as it once was, Google can use it to determine the topic of a webpage. However, excessively high keyword density may harm website rankings.19. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords in Content: LSI keywords help search enginesExtracting meaning from words with multiple meanings (e.g., Apple Inc. vs. the fruit apple). The presence/absence of LSI may also act as a content quality signal.20. LSI Keywords in Title and Description Tags:Similar to webpage content, LSI keywords in page meta tags may help Google identify words with multiple potential meanings and can also serve as a relevance signal.21. Depth of topics covered by the page:There is a correlation between the depth of content covered by a topic and Google rankings.Known correlation. Therefore, the website content coverage is more comprehensive, which may provide an advantage in rankings.22. Page Load Speed:Google has clearly stated that website loading speed is a factor in website rankings. Therefore, we need to optimizeWordPress optimization, improving page loading speed.23. Page Load Speed via Chrome: Google's Chrome has a large market share. Google also uses the load time of your website pages in Chrome to measure the actual speed at which users open web pages.24. AMP Support: Although AMP is not a direct Google ranking factor, pages that support AMP may rank better in mobile search.Method to resolve AMP warning „Required structured data elements are incorrect“25. Entity Matching:Does the page„s content match the “Entity" match? If so, the page may have improved ranking for that keyword.26. Google Hummingbird Algorithm:This „Algorithm Updates"Helps Google better understand the topic of the webpage now."27. Duplicate Content:Duplicate content on the same website (even if slightly modified) may negatively impact the site's search engine visibility.28. Rel = Canonical: If used properly, usingcanonical tagMay prevent Google from penalizing your website for duplicate content.29. Image Optimization:Image file names, included keywords, alt tags, etc., can all impact rankings.30. Content Publication Date: The Google Caffeine update favors recently published or updated content, especially for time-sensitive searches. Google has emphasized the importance of this factor and may display article dates in certain search results.How to Display the Last Updated Time for Posts in WordPress31. Content Update Magnitude:The extent of modifications and changes is also important. Adding or removing sections of content is much better than minor adjustments like fixing a few text errors.32. Historical Page Updates: How often is the page updated? Daily, weekly, yearly? The frequency of page updates also plays a role in updates.33. Keyword Occurrence Time:The appearance of keywords within the first 100 words of page content correlates with Google's first-page ranking.34. Keywords Included in H2, H3 Tags: Including keywords in h2, h3, or subheadings also helps Google analyze the content of the article. Google„s John Mueller said: “These heading tags in HTML help us understand the structure of the page.„35. Outbound Link Quality:Linking website content to sites with higher authority than yours is helpful for SEO and certainly not harmful.36. Outbound Link Topics:According to the Hilltop algorithm, Google may use the content of pages you link to as a relevance signal. For example, if you have a page about cars linking to a page about movies, this might indicate to Google that your page is related to the movie 'Cars' rather than automobiles.37. Grammar and Spelling: Article content should not contain typos or grammatically incorrect sentences; Baidu has also mentioned this point.38. Original Content:Whether the articles on the website are original; if copied and pasted from elsewhere, their ranking won't be good, although Google might still index them.39. Mobile-Friendly: Commonly referred to as „Mobilegeddon“, this update rewarded pages properly optimized for mobile devices. For Google optimization, it„s best to enableAMPPlugins40. Mobile Usability:Mobile users can easily access your website via mobile devices, potentially giving an advantage in Google„s “mobile-first indexing„.41.Mobile devicesHidden Content on:Because mobile pages contain too much content, some non-essential elements may be hidden. For example, when you visit Naibabiji on a mobile device, you can see the sidebar is hidden. However, if the content is important, it should remain visible on mobile devices; otherwise, it might affect Google's judgment.42. Useful „supplementary content“:According to the now-public Google Rater Guidelines document, useful supplementary content is an indicator of page quality (and thus, Google ranking). Examples include currency converters, loan interest calculators, and interactive recipes, so we should periodically update with useful articles:How to Display the Last Updated Time for Posts in WordPress 。 43. Content Hidden Behind Tabs:Do users need to click tabs to reveal certain content on the page? If so, Google states that such content „may not be indexed“ (this likely no longer applies unless your code prevents crawlers from reading it).44. Number of Outbound Links:Excessive dofollow OBL can „leak“ PageRank, which may harm the page„s ranking.45. Multimedia:Images, videos, and other multimedia elements can serve as content quality signals.46. Links Pointing to the PageNumber of internal links: Points to the pageThe number of internal links indicates its importance relative to other pages on the website (more internal links = more important).47. Quality of Internal Links Pointing to the Page: Internal links from pages with domain authority are more effective than those from pages with no or low page rank.48.Number of dead links on the page: Too many dead links on a page may indicate that the website is neglected or abandoned. InGoogle Rater Guidelines documentUsing inaccessible links is one way to assess the quality of a webpage.49. Reading Level:Undoubtedly, Google estimates the reading level of webpages. In fact, Google once provided reading level statistics. However, how they use this information is still debated. Some say a basic reading level can help improve rankings because it appeals to a broad audience. Others associate basic reading levels with content farms like Ezine Articles.50. AFF links: Affiliate links themselves may not harm your rankings. However, if your website has too many affiliate links,Google mayRe-evaluate the quality of your website's content.51. HTML Errors / W3C Validation: If a website's code is non-standard and contains errors, it can also affect search rankings.52. Domain Authority: All other things being equal, the main domain will rank higher than a subdomain.53. Page's PageRank:not entirely relevant. However, pages with high page authority will definitely rank better.54. URL Length:Excessively long URLs may harm a page's search engine visibility. In fact, some industry studies have found that shorter URLs often have a slight advantage in Google's search results.55. URL Path: Pages closer to the homepage may receive a slight authority boost compared to those buried deep in the website architecture.56.ManualEditor:Google has applied for apatent, this patent allows manual editors to influence SERP, so your ranking may be affected by this.57. Page Category Directory:The category tree where a page appears is a relevant signal. Articles belonging to closely related categories may improve relevance rankings compared to those archived under unrelated category trees.58. WordPress Tags:Tags (TAG) are WordPress-specific relevance signals. According toYoast.com：
„The only way to improve your SEO is to relate one piece of content to another, more specifically, to interrelate a group of posts.“
59. Keywords in the URL: Another related signal. A Google representative recently referred to this as „Very minor ranking factor". However, it remains a ranking factor.60. URL String: In the URL stringcategories are read by Google and can provide topical signals about the page content.61. References and Sources:Like research papers, citing references and sources can be a sign of quality. Google Quality GuidelinesPoint out, reviewers should pay attention to sources when viewing certain pages: „This is a topic where expertise and/or authoritative sources are important...“. However,Google deniesThey use external links as a ranking signal.62. Bullet Points and Numbered Lists: ItemsBullet points and numbered lists help break down content for readers, making it more usable. Google may agree and possibly prefer content with bullets and numbers.63. Pages in Sitemappriority：Specifying page priority through the sitemap.xml file may affect rankings.64. Too Many Outbound Links:Directly from the aforementioned Quality Rater Guidelines document:
„Some pages have too many links, making the page cluttered and distracting from the main content.“
65. Number of page rankings for other keywords:If a page ranks for several other keywords, it might be a signal of internal quality to Google.66. Page Age:Although Google prefers fresh content, an older page that is regularly updated may outperform a new page.67. User-Friendly Layout:Quoting the Google Quality Guidelines document again:
„The page layout on the highest quality pages makes the main content immediately visible.“
70. Content provides value and unique insights:The website's content must be valuable to users; websites that are purely for affiliate purposes will be penalized by Google.71. Website Contact Page:The previously mentioned Google quality document states that they prefer websites with „an appropriate amount of contact information.“ Ensure your contact information matches your Whois information.72. Domain Trust / TrustRank:Many SEOs believe that „TrustRank“ is a very important ranking factor. AndRecently submitted Google patentTitled „Search results are ranked based on trust,“ it seems to support this action.73. Website Architecture:A well-structured website architecture (e.g., silo structure) helps Google thematically organize your content. It also helps Googlebot access and index all pages of your website. Typically, we useWordPresswebsites don't need to worry about this issue.74. Website Updates:Although Google itself does not admit that website update frequency is linked to rankings, many SEO practitioners believe that higher update frequency is beneficial for website rankings.75. Sitemap:A sitemap file can provide all the pages of your entire website for search engines to crawl.76. Server Stability: If your website server is frequently inaccessible, it will affect your ranking on Google.77. Server Location: Server location can affect your ranking in specific regions, similar to the website loading speed mentioned earlier.78. SSL Certificate: Google has clearly stated it will give a ranking boost to websites using https.79. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy pages: If you are a commercial website, including these two pages will make Google trust you more.80. On-siteDuplicate Meta Information:on the siteDuplicate meta information may reduce the overall visibility of the page.81. Breadcrumb Navigation:This is a user-friendly website architecture that helps users (and search engines) understand their location on the site,Methods to add breadcrumb navigation to WordPress using Plugins and code82. Website Mobile-Friendly Access:If your website is difficult to open on mobile devices or provides a poor user experience, Google will lower your site's ranking.83. YouTube:If your article includes a YouTube video, it may be given more exposure opportunities.84. User Dwell Time:If your website content is of poor quality, or the page design is unreasonable, leading to shorter user dwell time, it will also be affected.85. Using Google Analytics and Google Search Console:Regardless of whether these two items will affect Google rankings, Naiba recommends everyoneCreating an English websiteto the website owner.86. User Reviews / Website Reputation:Google crawls some review information about your site from the web; sites with too much negative news may be affected in rankings.
Backlink Factors
87. Link Domain Age:Backlinks from some older websites may be more effective than those from new websites.88. Linking Root DomainsQuantity: The number of links pointing to your website's homepage.89. Number of Links from Separate Class C IPs: Links from separate Class C IP addresses.Links indicate a broader scope of sites linking to you,This helps with ranking.。 90. Number of Linking Pages：Linking pagetotal (even if from the same domain)Also affects ranking。 91. Backlink Anchor Text: Keyword-rich anchor text can still improve your page's relevance in certain situations.92. Alt Tags: Alt text serves as the anchor text for images.93. Links from .edu or .gov Domains: Google says they do not give extra weight to .edu domain links alone, but SEOs don't believe it.94. Authority of Linking Page: Although Google PR is no longer updated, links from high-authority pages still perform better.95. LinkDomain authority: The authority of the referring domain can play an independent role in the value of a link.96. Competitors'Links：Links ranking other webpages in the same SERP may be more valuable for that webpage's ranking on that specific keyword.97. Links from „Expected“ Websites:Although speculative, some SEOs believe that Google will not fully trust your website unless you are linked to from a set of „expected“ websites in your industry.98. From bad communitiesLinks：Links from so-called „bad neighborhoods“may harm your site。 99. Guest Content:Some websites may allow guest posts, etc. Excessive guest posts unrelated to your site can affect Google ranking.100. Links from Ads:According to Google, links from ads should not be followed. However, Google is likely able to identify and filter out followed links from ads.101. Homepage Authority:Links pointing to the homepage of a reference page may be particularly important in assessing the weight of a site (and thus also the weight of the link).102. Nofollow Links:Although Google does not follow nofollow links, when many sites' nofollow links point to your site, it can attract Google's attention.103. Diversity of Link Types:It's best for your website's backlinks to come from a variety of sources, such as blogs, portals, forums, etc.104. „Sponsored Links“ or other words around links:If there are reminders like „Ad“ or „Sponsored Links“ around your link, it can reduce the link„s weight.105. Internal Links in Articles:Links embedded within the page content are more powerful than links on empty pages or in other locations on the page.106. Excessive 301 Redirects:If there are too many 301 links pointing to the same page, it may backfire and reduce that page's authority.107. Internal link anchor text: Internal link anchor text is another related signal. That is to say, the weight of internal links may be much less than that of anchor text from external sites.108. Link title description: If your website title has a separate tooltip description when hovered over, it may also slightly increase page relevance.109. Country/Top-Level Domain of the Referring Domain:Obtaining links from top-level domain extensions of specific countries/regions (.de, .cn, .co.uk) may help you rank higher in that country/region.110. Link position within content: ContentLinks at the beginning may carry more weight than those at the end of the content.111. Link Position on Page:Position where the link appears on the page.Locationis important. Typically, links embedded within the page content are more powerful than links in the footer or sidebar areas.112. Link Domain Relevance:Links from sites in similar niches are much more powerful than links from completely unrelated sites.113. Page-level relevance:Links within relevant pages also convey more value.114. Keywords in the Title: GoogleTitlePages that contain your page„s keywords linking to you (“expert links to expert„ is highly favored).115. External link growth speed:The faster the speed of external link growth, the more popular the website may be.116. Negative Link Velocity:Conversely, a negative link velocity can significantly lower rankings, as it signals a decline in popularity.117. Links from Pages:If you have links from topic-specific pages, Google treats them specially.118. From authoritative sitesLinks: Links from authoritative sites may be more useful than many links from other small websites.119. Links as Wikipedia Sources:Although these links are nofollow, many believe that obtaining links from Wikipedia can add a bit of trust and authority in the eyes of search engines.120. Concurrency:Words that tend to appear around your backlinks help tell Google what the page is about.121. Backlink Age:According toA Google patent, older links have higher ranking power than newly created backlinks.122. Links between real sites and „Splogs“:Due to the proliferation of blog networks, Google may place more weight on links from „real sites“ compared to fake blogs. They might use brand and user interaction signals to differentiate between the two.123. Natural Links:Natural links refer to those links that webmasters voluntarily add to your website, rather than links created in bulk using some cheating methods.124. Abnormal Reciprocal Links:Refers to the practice of buying and selling friendly links.125. User-Generated Content Links:Google can distinguish between UGC and content published by the actual website owner. For example, they know the difference between links from the official WordPress.com blog and links from besttoasterreviews.wordpress.comVeryDifferent.126.From 301 RedirectsLinks:Compared to direct links, the effect of 301 redirect links is slightly less.127. Schema.org Usage:Micro tags provide some help on Google, and domestic Baidu is also following suit.128. TrustRank of Linking Sites:The credibility of sites linking to yours determines how much „TrustRank“ is passed to you.129. Number of outbound links on a page: PageRank is limited. A link on a page with hundreds of external links passes less PageRank than a link on a page with few outbound links.130. Forum links:Due to industrial-level spam, Google may severely devalue links in forums.131. Word count of linked content:Links from a 1000-word post are generally more valuable than links within a 25-word snippet.132. Quality of Link Content: ContentLinks from poorly written or spun content do not generate as much value as links from well-written content.133.Site-wideLinks:Matt Cutts has confirmed that site-wide links are „compressed“ into a single link.
User Interaction
134. RankBrain:RankBrainis Google's AI algorithm. Many believe its main purpose is to measure how users interact with search results (and rank the results accordingly).135. Organic Click-Through Rate for Keywords：According to Google, webpages with higher click-through rates may receive a SERP boost for that specific keyword.136. All keywordsorganic click-through rate: the website'sOrganic click-through ratemay be based on human, user interaction signals (in other words,Organic resultsof „ Quality Score”).137. Bounce rate:Not everyone in SEO agrees on the issue of bounce rate, but this could be a way for Google to utilize its users as quality testers (after all, a page with a high bounce rate might not be a great result for that keyword). Also,A recent study by SEMRushfound a correlation between bounce rate and Google rankings.138. Direct Traffic:ConfirmedGoogle uses data from the Google Chrome browserto determine the number of people visiting the website (and the frequency of visits). Websites with a lot of direct traffic are likely to be of higher quality compared to those with little direct traffic. In fact, the SEMRush study I just cited found a significant correlation between direct clicks and Google rankings.139. Repeat visitsWebsites with repeat visitors may receive a boost in Google rankings.140. Pogosticking: „Pogosticking” is a special type of bounce. In this case, users click on other search results to try to find the answer to their query.141. Blocked Websites: Google has discontinued this feature in Chrome. However,Panda uses this featureused as a quality signal. Therefore, Google may still use a variant of it.142. Chrome Bookmarks:We know that Google collected usage data from the Chrome browser. Pages bookmarked in Chrome may receive a boost.143. Number of comments:pages with many comments may increase the weight of that page.144. Dwell time:The longer a user stays on your website, the more engaging the content is, and the more weight it may receive.
Special Google Algorithm Rules
145. Query results update: Google provides updated pages for certain searches.146. Queries should have diversity:For ambiguous keywords, such as „Ted,“ „WWF,“ or „ruby,“ Google can add diversity to the SERPs.147. User Browsing History: You may have noticed this yourself: websites you frequently visit get a SERP boost from searches.148. User Search History:Search chains influence search results for later searches. For example, if you search for „reviews“ and then search for „toaster,“ Google is more likely to rank toaster review sites higher in the SERPs.149. Featured Snippet:Selects featured snippet content based on a combination of content length, format, page authority, and HTTP usage.150. Geographic targeting: Google prioritizes websites with local server IPs and specific country/domain name extensions.151. SafeSearch:EnableSafeSearch usersWill not see with curse words or adult contentSearchresults.152. Google+ Circles:Google+ has ceased operations; this point is no longer applicable.153. „YMYL“ keywords:Google„s treatment of “Your Money or Your Life„ keywords (pages that may affect your current or future health (physical, financial, safety, etc.))have higher content quality standards。 154. DMCA Complaints: Google „demotes“ webpages with legitimate DMCA complaints.155. Domain diversity: When a website grows large, it should not keep all content under a single domain; consider separating it using different domains.156. Transactional Searches: Google sometimes displays different results for shopping-related keywords, such as flight searches.157. Local search:For local searches, Google often places local results above „regular“ organic SERPs.158. „Top Stories“ box:Certain keywords trigger the „Top Stories“ box:159. Big Brand Bias:Google began adding specific weight to certain keywords for major brands.160. Shopping Results: Google sometimes displays Google Shopping results as organic SERPs:161. Image Results:Google Images sometimes appear in regular organic search results.162. Easter Egg Results:Google has dozensEaster egg results. For example, when you search for „Atari Breakout“ in Google Image Search, the search results turn into a playable game (!). Shoutout to Victor Pan.163. Single-site results for a brand:Domains or brand-oriented keywords display multiple results from the same site.164. Payday Loan Update:This is a special algorithm designed to filter out „Very spammy queries”.
Brand Signals
165. Brand Name Anchor Text:Brand anchor text is a simple but strong brand signal.166. Brand Search:People search for brands. If people search for your brand on Google, this shows Google that your website is a genuine brand.167. Brand + Keyword Search:Do people search for specific keywords along with your brand (e.g., „Backlinko Google ranking factors“ or „Backlinko SEO“)? If so, Google may boost your rankings when people search for the non-brand version of that keyword.168. Website has a Facebook page and likes:Brands tend to have many liked Facebook pages.169. Website has a Twitter profile with followers:Has manyFollower's Twitter ProfileIndicates a popular brand.170. Official LinkedIn Company Page:Most real businesses have a corporate LinkedIn page.171. Known Authorship:In February 2013, Google CEO Eric Schmidt famously stated:
„In search results, information linked to verified online profiles will rank higher than content without such verification, leading most users to naturally click on the top (verified) results.”
172. Legitimacy of Social Media Accounts:A social media account with 10,000 followers and 2 posts might be an explanationa lotUnlike other 10,000 accounts with many interactions following strongly. Actually,Google filed a patent,to determine if a social media account is genuine or fake.173. Brand Mentions in Top Stories:Major brands are consistently mentioned on popular news websites. In fact, some brands even have news summaries from their sites featured on the homepage:174.UnlinkedBrand mentions:Not mentioned whileMentionsBrand. GoogleMay treat non-hyperlinked brand mentionsConsidered as a brand signal.175. Brick and Mortar Location:Real businesses have offices. Google may look for location data to determine if a website is a well-known brand.
Web Spam Factors
176. Panda Penalty:After being hit by a Panda penalty, websites with low-quality content (especiallyContent Farm) is less prominent in search.177. Links to Bad NeighborhoodsLinks：Linking to „bad neighborhoods“ (e.g., spam pharmacy or payday loan websites) may harm your search visibility.178. Redirects:Sneaky redirects are a major taboo. If discovered, they can not only penalize a website but also get it de-indexed.179. Pop-up Ads or „Distracting Ads“:OfficialGoogle Rater Guidelines documentIt points out that pop-up ads and distracting advertisements are signs of low website quality.180. Interstitial Pop-ups:Google may penalize websites that display full-page „interstitial“ pop-ups to mobile users.181. Website Over-Optimization:Yes, Google does penalize websites for over-optimization. This includes: keyword stuffing, title tag stuffing, excessive keyword modification.182. Gibberish Content:A Google patent outlines how Google identifies „gibberish“ content, which helps filter out spun or auto-generated content from the index.183. Doorway Page: Google wants the page you show to Google to be the one users ultimately see. If your page redirects people to another page, that„s a “doorway page.” Needless to say,Google dislikesWebsites using Doorway Pages.184. Ads Above the Fold: „Page Layout Algorithm” will affectAbove the foldSites with a large number of ads (and little content) are penalized.185. Hidden Promotional Links:Deliberately hiding affiliate links from users may lead to a downgrade in Google's ranking.186. Fred: FredA nickname for a series of updates to Google starting in 2017. According to Search Engine Land, Fred „targets low-value content sites that prioritize revenue over helping users.”187. Affiliate Websites:It's no secret that Google isn't the biggest fan of affiliates. Many believe sites monetized through affiliate marketing programs face extra scrutiny.188. Auto-Generated Content: Google Hates automatically generated content.. If they suspect your website is generating computer-generated content, it may lead to a penalty or de-indexing.189. Excessive PageRank Sculpting:By nofollowing all outbound links, whilePageRank Sculpting in ProgressExcessive attempts may indicate gaming of the system.190. IP Address Flagged as Spam:If a server's IP address is flagged as spam, it may affect all sites on that server.191. Meta Tag Spam:Keyword stuffing can also occur in meta tags. If Google believes you are adding keywords to title and description tags in an attempt to manipulate the algorithm, these keywords may result in a penalty for your website.
Off-site Spam Factors
192. Hacked Website: If your website is hacked, it may be removed from search results.193. Unnatural LinksInflux: A sudden (unnatural) influx of links is a reliable sign of fake links.194. Penguin Penalty:Sites hit by Google Penguin see significantly reduced visibility in search. Although, obviously, Penguin now focuses more on filtering bad links rather than penalizing entire sites.195. Link Profile with a High Percentage of Low-Quality Links:Many links from sources frequently used by black hat SEO (such as blog comments and forum profiles) can be a sign of gaming the system.196.Links from irrelevant websites: A high percentage of backlinks from irrelevant sites,May increase the likelihood of a manual penalty.。 197. Unnatural Link Warning:Google has sent thousands of „Google Search Console notifications about unnatural links detected.”198. Low-Quality Directory Links:Backlinks from low-quality directories may lead to penalties.199. Widget Links:When users embed „widgets“ on their websites, Google automatically generates auto-generated links.200. From the same Class C IPLinks from: Receiving an unnatural number of links from sites on the same server IP may help Google determine your links are from a blog network.201. „Poison“ Anchor Text:„Poison“ anchor text (especially pharmacy keywords) pointing to your site may indicate spam or a hacked website. Either way, it can harm your site„s rankings.202. Unnatural Link Spike: A 2013 Google patent describes how Google identifies whether links flowing into a page are legitimate. These unnatural links may be devalued.203. Links from articles and press releases:Article directories and press releases have been abused to the point that Google now considers these two link-building strategies as „link schemes“ in many cases.204. Manual actions:theseOperation有Several types, but most are related to black hat link building.205. Paid links:Discovered paid linksMay harm your search visibility。 206. Google Sandbox:New sites that sometimes receive a sudden influx of links are placed inIn the Google Sandbox, which temporarily limits search visibility.207. Google Dance:Google Dance can temporarily change rankings. According to Google's patent, this might be a method they use to determine if a site is trying to manipulate the algorithm.208. Disavow Tool:Use„Disavow Tool“May remove manual or algorithmic penalties from websites that are victims of negative SEO.209. Reconsideration Request: A successful reconsideration request can lift the penalty.210. Temporary link schemes:Google attracts people who create and quickly delete spam links. Also known as temporary link schemes.
Conclusion
The above is a collection of 210 Google SEO optimization points summarized by foreign SEO practitioners, compiled by Naiba. Some rules may have become obsolete, but the overall principles remain largely unchanged. To summarize, the factors affecting Google rankings today include the following:
Referring domains
Random Click-Through Rate
Domain Authority
Mobile usability
Dwell time
Total number of backlinks
Content quality
On-page SEO
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As a website's address, the domain name is very important for a website, regardless of mobile-friendliness. From a domain factor perspective, the following 10 points affect Google ranking.1. Website Domain Age: Looks beautiful onThis videoIn it, Google„s Matt Cutts confirms: “The difference between a six-month-old domain and a one-year-old domain is really not that big at all.„ In other words, they do use domain age as a ranking factor... but it“s not a major one.2. Keyword in Top-Level Domain:This no longer creates a significant competitive advantage as it once did. However, including keywords in your domain name can still serve as a relevance signal.3. Keyword as First Word in Domain:Domains starting with the target keyword have a competitive advantage in Google rankings compared to domains where the keyword is not found (or appears in the middle or end of the domain). For example, ifNaibabijiA domain containing keywords related to website building is beneficial.4. Domain Registration Length:A Google patent states: „...legitimate domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of the domain.“5. Keyword in Subdomain:Moz's expert panel believes the presence of a keyword in a subdomain can boost rankings.6. Domain History Data:Domains with ownership changes or multiple lapses may signal Google to reset the link equity pointing to the domain, effectively „resetting“ the site„s history. Or, in some cases, a penalized domain might transfer that penalty to a new owner.7. Exact Match Domain:Exact Match Domains may still give you some competitive advantage. However, if your EMD is a low-quality site, it is more susceptible to the EMD update.8. Public vs. Private WhoIsDomain privacy protection can be a signal of „something to hide.“ To quote Googler Matt Cutts: „...when we checked the whois on them, they all had “whois privacy protection service„. That“s relatively unusual. ...Using whois privacy isn„t necessarily bad, but once you start throwing up many different kinds of signals, you“re often talking about a webmaster that is qualitatively different than a webmaster that has just a single site.„9. Penalized WhoIs Owner:If Google identifies someone as a spammer, it makes sense for them to scrutinize other sites owned by that person.10. Country Code Top Level Domain (ccTLD) Extension:Having a country code top-level domain (.cn, .pt, .ca) can help the site rank for that specific country... but it can limit the site's ability to rank globally.
11. Keyword in Title Tag:While not as critical as it once was, your title tag remains an important on-page SEO signal.12. Title Starts with Keyword:According to SEOmoz, titles starting with keywords often rank better than those with keywords in the middle or end.13. Keyword in Description Tag:Google does not use the meta description tag as a direct ranking factor. However, your description tag influences click-through rate, which is a ranking factor. For example, this site„s description “Naibabiji records my ownSteps to Build a Website, individuals and businessesWordPress Installation Tutorial; sharing theme templates, plugin code, resource downloads, VPS hosting deals, usage tutorials, web optimization techniques.14. Keywords Appearing in H1 Tags:The H1 tag is the „second title tag.“ According to a relevance study, Google uses your H1 tag along with your title tag as a relevance factor for webpage rankings.15. TF-IDF:How frequently does a word appear in the document? The more times a keyword appears on a page, the more likely the page is related to that keyword. Google may use a sophisticated version of TF-IDF.16. Content Length:Generally, search engines may consider longer articles to be more detailed, while shorter articles might be perceived as lacking substance.17. Table of Contents:Adding a table of contents to article pages helps Google better understand your page's content and may result in sitelinks appearing in Google search results. For example, Naibabiji's articles include a table of contents feature.18. Keyword Density:Although not as important as it once was, Google can use it to determine the topic of a webpage. However, excessively high keyword density may harm website rankings.19. Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) Keywords in Content: LSI keywords help search enginesExtracting meaning from words with multiple meanings (e.g., Apple Inc. vs. the fruit apple). The presence/absence of LSI may also act as a content quality signal.20. LSI Keywords in Title and Description Tags:Similar to webpage content, LSI keywords in page meta tags may help Google identify words with multiple potential meanings and can also serve as a relevance signal.21. Depth of topics covered by the page:There is a correlation between the depth of content covered by a topic and Google rankings.Known correlation. Therefore, the website content coverage is more comprehensive, which may provide an advantage in rankings.22. Page Load Speed:Google has clearly stated that website loading speed is a factor in website rankings. Therefore, we need to optimizeWordPress optimization, improving page loading speed.23. Page Load Speed via Chrome: Google's Chrome has a large market share. Google also uses the load time of your website pages in Chrome to measure the actual speed at which users open web pages.24. AMP Support: Although AMP is not a direct Google ranking factor, pages that support AMP may rank better in mobile search.Method to resolve AMP warning „Required structured data elements are incorrect“ 25. Entity Matching:Does the page„s content match the “Entity" match? If so, the page may have improved ranking for that keyword.26. Google Hummingbird Algorithm:This „Algorithm Updates"Helps Google better understand the topic of the webpage now."27. Duplicate Content:Duplicate content on the same website (even if slightly modified) may negatively impact the site's search engine visibility.28. Rel = Canonical: If used properly, usingcanonical tagMay prevent Google from penalizing your website for duplicate content.29. Image Optimization:Image file names, included keywords, alt tags, etc., can all impact rankings.30. Content Publication Date: The Google Caffeine update favors recently published or updated content, especially for time-sensitive searches. Google has emphasized the importance of this factor and may display article dates in certain search results.How to Display the Last Updated Time for Posts in WordPress 31. Content Update Magnitude:The extent of modifications and changes is also important. Adding or removing sections of content is much better than minor adjustments like fixing a few text errors.32. Historical Page Updates: How often is the page updated? Daily, weekly, yearly? The frequency of page updates also plays a role in updates.33. Keyword Occurrence Time:The appearance of keywords within the first 100 words of page content correlates with Google's first-page ranking.34. Keywords Included in H2, H3 Tags: Including keywords in h2, h3, or subheadings also helps Google analyze the content of the article. Google„s John Mueller said: “These heading tags in HTML help us understand the structure of the page.„35. Outbound Link Quality:Linking website content to sites with higher authority than yours is helpful for SEO and certainly not harmful.36. Outbound Link Topics:According to the Hilltop algorithm, Google may use the content of pages you link to as a relevance signal. For example, if you have a page about cars linking to a page about movies, this might indicate to Google that your page is related to the movie 'Cars' rather than automobiles.37. Grammar and Spelling: Article content should not contain typos or grammatically incorrect sentences; Baidu has also mentioned this point.38. Original Content:Whether the articles on the website are original; if copied and pasted from elsewhere, their ranking won't be good, although Google might still index them.39. Mobile-Friendly: Commonly referred to as „Mobilegeddon“, this update rewarded pages properly optimized for mobile devices. For Google optimization, it„s best to enableAMPPlugins40. Mobile Usability:Mobile users can easily access your website via mobile devices, potentially giving an advantage in Google„s “mobile-first indexing„.41.Mobile devicesHidden Content on:Because mobile pages contain too much content, some non-essential elements may be hidden. For example, when you visit Naibabiji on a mobile device, you can see the sidebar is hidden. However, if the content is important, it should remain visible on mobile devices; otherwise, it might affect Google's judgment.42. Useful „supplementary content“:According to the now-public Google Rater Guidelines document, useful supplementary content is an indicator of page quality (and thus, Google ranking). Examples include currency converters, loan interest calculators, and interactive recipes, so we should periodically update with useful articles:How to Display the Last Updated Time for Posts in WordPress 。 43. Content Hidden Behind Tabs:Do users need to click tabs to reveal certain content on the page? If so, Google states that such content „may not be indexed“ (this likely no longer applies unless your code prevents crawlers from reading it).44. Number of Outbound Links:Excessive dofollow OBL can „leak“ PageRank, which may harm the page„s ranking.45. Multimedia:Images, videos, and other multimedia elements can serve as content quality signals.46. Links Pointing to the PageNumber of internal links: Points to the pageThe number of internal links indicates its importance relative to other pages on the website (more internal links = more important).47. Quality of Internal Links Pointing to the Page: Internal links from pages with domain authority are more effective than those from pages with no or low page rank.48.Number of dead links on the page: Too many dead links on a page may indicate that the website is neglected or abandoned. InGoogle Rater Guidelines documentUsing inaccessible links is one way to assess the quality of a webpage.49. Reading Level:Undoubtedly, Google estimates the reading level of webpages. In fact, Google once provided reading level statistics. However, how they use this information is still debated. Some say a basic reading level can help improve rankings because it appeals to a broad audience. Others associate basic reading levels with content farms like Ezine Articles.50. AFF links: Affiliate links themselves may not harm your rankings. However, if your website has too many affiliate links,Google mayRe-evaluate the quality of your website's content.51. HTML Errors / W3C Validation: If a website's code is non-standard and contains errors, it can also affect search rankings.52. Domain Authority: All other things being equal, the main domain will rank higher than a subdomain.53. Page's PageRank:not entirely relevant. However, pages with high page authority will definitely rank better.54. URL Length:Excessively long URLs may harm a page's search engine visibility. In fact, some industry studies have found that shorter URLs often have a slight advantage in Google's search results.55. URL Path: Pages closer to the homepage may receive a slight authority boost compared to those buried deep in the website architecture.56.ManualEditor:Google has applied for apatent, this patent allows manual editors to influence SERP, so your ranking may be affected by this.57. Page Category Directory:The category tree where a page appears is a relevant signal. Articles belonging to closely related categories may improve relevance rankings compared to those archived under unrelated category trees.58. WordPress Tags:Tags (TAG) are WordPress-specific relevance signals. According toYoast.com：
70. Content provides value and unique insights:The website's content must be valuable to users; websites that are purely for affiliate purposes will be penalized by Google.71. Website Contact Page:The previously mentioned Google quality document states that they prefer websites with „an appropriate amount of contact information.“ Ensure your contact information matches your Whois information.72. Domain Trust / TrustRank:Many SEOs believe that „TrustRank“ is a very important ranking factor. AndRecently submitted Google patentTitled „Search results are ranked based on trust,“ it seems to support this action.73. Website Architecture:A well-structured website architecture (e.g., silo structure) helps Google thematically organize your content. It also helps Googlebot access and index all pages of your website. Typically, we useWordPresswebsites don't need to worry about this issue.74. Website Updates:Although Google itself does not admit that website update frequency is linked to rankings, many SEO practitioners believe that higher update frequency is beneficial for website rankings.75. Sitemap:A sitemap file can provide all the pages of your entire website for search engines to crawl.76. Server Stability: If your website server is frequently inaccessible, it will affect your ranking on Google.77. Server Location: Server location can affect your ranking in specific regions, similar to the website loading speed mentioned earlier.78. SSL Certificate: Google has clearly stated it will give a ranking boost to websites using https.79. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy pages: If you are a commercial website, including these two pages will make Google trust you more.80. On-siteDuplicate Meta Information:on the siteDuplicate meta information may reduce the overall visibility of the page.81. Breadcrumb Navigation:This is a user-friendly website architecture that helps users (and search engines) understand their location on the site,Methods to add breadcrumb navigation to WordPress using Plugins and code 82. Website Mobile-Friendly Access:If your website is difficult to open on mobile devices or provides a poor user experience, Google will lower your site's ranking.83. YouTube:If your article includes a YouTube video, it may be given more exposure opportunities.84. User Dwell Time:If your website content is of poor quality, or the page design is unreasonable, leading to shorter user dwell time, it will also be affected.85. Using Google Analytics and Google Search Console:Regardless of whether these two items will affect Google rankings, Naiba recommends everyoneCreating an English websiteto the website owner.86. User Reviews / Website Reputation:Google crawls some review information about your site from the web; sites with too much negative news may be affected in rankings.
87. Link Domain Age:Backlinks from some older websites may be more effective than those from new websites.88. Linking Root DomainsQuantity: The number of links pointing to your website's homepage.89. Number of Links from Separate Class C IPs: Links from separate Class C IP addresses.Links indicate a broader scope of sites linking to you,This helps with ranking.。 90. Number of Linking Pages：Linking pagetotal (even if from the same domain)Also affects ranking。 91. Backlink Anchor Text: Keyword-rich anchor text can still improve your page's relevance in certain situations.92. Alt Tags: Alt text serves as the anchor text for images.93. Links from .edu or .gov Domains: Google says they do not give extra weight to .edu domain links alone, but SEOs don't believe it.94. Authority of Linking Page: Although Google PR is no longer updated, links from high-authority pages still perform better.95. LinkDomain authority: The authority of the referring domain can play an independent role in the value of a link.96. Competitors'Links：Links ranking other webpages in the same SERP may be more valuable for that webpage's ranking on that specific keyword.97. Links from „Expected“ Websites:Although speculative, some SEOs believe that Google will not fully trust your website unless you are linked to from a set of „expected“ websites in your industry.98. From bad communitiesLinks：Links from so-called „bad neighborhoods“may harm your site。 99. Guest Content:Some websites may allow guest posts, etc. Excessive guest posts unrelated to your site can affect Google ranking.100. Links from Ads:According to Google, links from ads should not be followed. However, Google is likely able to identify and filter out followed links from ads.101. Homepage Authority:Links pointing to the homepage of a reference page may be particularly important in assessing the weight of a site (and thus also the weight of the link).102. Nofollow Links:Although Google does not follow nofollow links, when many sites' nofollow links point to your site, it can attract Google's attention.103. Diversity of Link Types:It's best for your website's backlinks to come from a variety of sources, such as blogs, portals, forums, etc.104. „Sponsored Links“ or other words around links:If there are reminders like „Ad“ or „Sponsored Links“ around your link, it can reduce the link„s weight.105. Internal Links in Articles:Links embedded within the page content are more powerful than links on empty pages or in other locations on the page.106. Excessive 301 Redirects:If there are too many 301 links pointing to the same page, it may backfire and reduce that page's authority.107. Internal link anchor text: Internal link anchor text is another related signal. That is to say, the weight of internal links may be much less than that of anchor text from external sites.108. Link title description: If your website title has a separate tooltip description when hovered over, it may also slightly increase page relevance.109. Country/Top-Level Domain of the Referring Domain:Obtaining links from top-level domain extensions of specific countries/regions (.de, .cn, .co.uk) may help you rank higher in that country/region.110. Link position within content: ContentLinks at the beginning may carry more weight than those at the end of the content.111. Link Position on Page:Position where the link appears on the page.Locationis important. Typically, links embedded within the page content are more powerful than links in the footer or sidebar areas.112. Link Domain Relevance:Links from sites in similar niches are much more powerful than links from completely unrelated sites.113. Page-level relevance:Links within relevant pages also convey more value.114. Keywords in the Title: GoogleTitlePages that contain your page„s keywords linking to you (“expert links to expert„ is highly favored).115. External link growth speed:The faster the speed of external link growth, the more popular the website may be.116. Negative Link Velocity:Conversely, a negative link velocity can significantly lower rankings, as it signals a decline in popularity.117. Links from Pages:If you have links from topic-specific pages, Google treats them specially.118. From authoritative sitesLinks: Links from authoritative sites may be more useful than many links from other small websites.119. Links as Wikipedia Sources:Although these links are nofollow, many believe that obtaining links from Wikipedia can add a bit of trust and authority in the eyes of search engines.120. Concurrency:Words that tend to appear around your backlinks help tell Google what the page is about.121. Backlink Age:According toA Google patent, older links have higher ranking power than newly created backlinks.122. Links between real sites and „Splogs“:Due to the proliferation of blog networks, Google may place more weight on links from „real sites“ compared to fake blogs. They might use brand and user interaction signals to differentiate between the two.123. Natural Links:Natural links refer to those links that webmasters voluntarily add to your website, rather than links created in bulk using some cheating methods.124. Abnormal Reciprocal Links:Refers to the practice of buying and selling friendly links.125. User-Generated Content Links:Google can distinguish between UGC and content published by the actual website owner. For example, they know the difference between links from the official WordPress.com blog and links from besttoasterreviews.wordpress.comVeryDifferent.126.From 301 RedirectsLinks:Compared to direct links, the effect of 301 redirect links is slightly less.127. Schema.org Usage:Micro tags provide some help on Google, and domestic Baidu is also following suit.128. TrustRank of Linking Sites:The credibility of sites linking to yours determines how much „TrustRank“ is passed to you.129. Number of outbound links on a page: PageRank is limited. A link on a page with hundreds of external links passes less PageRank than a link on a page with few outbound links.130. Forum links:Due to industrial-level spam, Google may severely devalue links in forums.131. Word count of linked content:Links from a 1000-word post are generally more valuable than links within a 25-word snippet.132. Quality of Link Content: ContentLinks from poorly written or spun content do not generate as much value as links from well-written content.133.Site-wideLinks:Matt Cutts has confirmed that site-wide links are „compressed“ into a single link.
134. RankBrain: RankBrainis Google's AI algorithm. Many believe its main purpose is to measure how users interact with search results (and rank the results accordingly).135. Organic Click-Through Rate for Keywords：According to Google, webpages with higher click-through rates may receive a SERP boost for that specific keyword.136. All keywordsorganic click-through rate: the website'sOrganic click-through ratemay be based on human, user interaction signals (in other words,Organic resultsof „ Quality Score”).137. Bounce rate:Not everyone in SEO agrees on the issue of bounce rate, but this could be a way for Google to utilize its users as quality testers (after all, a page with a high bounce rate might not be a great result for that keyword). Also,A recent study by SEMRushfound a correlation between bounce rate and Google rankings.138. Direct Traffic:ConfirmedGoogle uses data from the Google Chrome browserto determine the number of people visiting the website (and the frequency of visits). Websites with a lot of direct traffic are likely to be of higher quality compared to those with little direct traffic. In fact, the SEMRush study I just cited found a significant correlation between direct clicks and Google rankings.139. Repeat visitsWebsites with repeat visitors may receive a boost in Google rankings.140. Pogosticking: „Pogosticking” is a special type of bounce. In this case, users click on other search results to try to find the answer to their query.141. Blocked Websites: Google has discontinued this feature in Chrome. However,Panda uses this featureused as a quality signal. Therefore, Google may still use a variant of it.142. Chrome Bookmarks:We know that Google collected usage data from the Chrome browser. Pages bookmarked in Chrome may receive a boost.143. Number of comments:pages with many comments may increase the weight of that page.144. Dwell time:The longer a user stays on your website, the more engaging the content is, and the more weight it may receive.
192. Hacked Website: If your website is hacked, it may be removed from search results.193. Unnatural LinksInflux: A sudden (unnatural) influx of links is a reliable sign of fake links.194. Penguin Penalty:Sites hit by Google Penguin see significantly reduced visibility in search. Although, obviously, Penguin now focuses more on filtering bad links rather than penalizing entire sites.195. Link Profile with a High Percentage of Low-Quality Links:Many links from sources frequently used by black hat SEO (such as blog comments and forum profiles) can be a sign of gaming the system.196.Links from irrelevant websites: A high percentage of backlinks from irrelevant sites,May increase the likelihood of a manual penalty.。 197. Unnatural Link Warning:Google has sent thousands of „Google Search Console notifications about unnatural links detected.”198. Low-Quality Directory Links:Backlinks from low-quality directories may lead to penalties.199. Widget Links:When users embed „widgets“ on their websites, Google automatically generates auto-generated links.200. From the same Class C IPLinks from: Receiving an unnatural number of links from sites on the same server IP may help Google determine your links are from a blog network.201. „Poison“ Anchor Text:„Poison“ anchor text (especially pharmacy keywords) pointing to your site may indicate spam or a hacked website. Either way, it can harm your site„s rankings.202. Unnatural Link Spike: A 2013 Google patent describes how Google identifies whether links flowing into a page are legitimate. These unnatural links may be devalued.203. Links from articles and press releases:Article directories and press releases have been abused to the point that Google now considers these two link-building strategies as „link schemes“ in many cases.204. Manual actions:theseOperation有Several types, but most are related to black hat link building.205. Paid links:Discovered paid linksMay harm your search visibility。 206. Google Sandbox:New sites that sometimes receive a sudden influx of links are placed inIn the Google Sandbox, which temporarily limits search visibility.207. Google Dance:Google Dance can temporarily change rankings. According to Google's patent, this might be a method they use to determine if a site is trying to manipulate the algorithm.208. Disavow Tool:Use„Disavow Tool“May remove manual or algorithmic penalties from websites that are victims of negative SEO.209. Reconsideration Request: A successful reconsideration request can lift the penalty.210. Temporary link schemes:Google attracts people who create and quickly delete spam links. Also known as temporary link schemes.
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